View source for Holographic Mobile Emitter

The holographic mobile emitter was designed as a part of [[Project Torchwood]]. Based on the design of the emitter that belongs to [[memoryalpha:The Doctor|The Doctor]] — a piece of 29th century technology that was acquired during the course of unexpected time travel. The Torchwood model is larger and less advanced than The Doctor's unit as it has been backwards engineered from the study of the original unit.

== Specifications ==
Under typical usage conditions, the unit is capable of maintaining a usable charge for up to a month between full recharges through a docking station and with the assistance of the built in kinetic trickle charge feature. Charge life may be reduced in more complex situations, such as but not limited to: highly complex patterns, frequent shifting between patterns, frequent shifting between tangible and intangible state, cycling on and off. For tangible projections, the unit may produce a projection up to two cubic meters in size with the emitter located anywhere within that area and connected to the tangible projection; for intangible projections, it may project anywhere up to three meters away from the location of the emitter. The emitter will obey the laws of physics, and must have a tangible projection to hold it up in the presence of gravity or be supported by something non-holographic.

The emitter is designed to be stored, charged, and synced in a docking station. There are two types of docking station: the pilot's docking station, allowing the photon direct access to flight control systems of a starship or fighter; and the home docking station for charging the unit, loading firmware patches, and allowing the photon the transfer themself between the mobile emitter and the computer system of the ship, station or other facility they are stationed at.

=== Durability and Safety ===
By their nature, holographic beings are not vulnerable to many of the things that affect organic beings. Attempts to cause physical harm may move the photon due to the force applied to them as long as they are in tangible form, but they will not feel pain or suffer damage to their projection as a result of the impact. Harming their mobile emitter can cause it to shut down or limit the capabilities of the unit. In an effort to teach the holographic beings to defend the area the mobile emitter is most often worn, Torchwood photons are programmed to have an involuntary reaction to impact and pressure on this location in the absence of the emitter.

If a tangible projection is hit by a phaser blast or other energy weapon the mobile emitter is forced to dissipate the extra energy by use of an external heat sink on the case. If the energy weapon is set high enough this is enough to disrupt the operation of the mobile emitter, either reducing the hologram's complexity or shutting down entirely, for example if the Energy weapon is set to kill or disintegrate. In these cases the mobile emitter would be too hot to touch for most organic lifeforms, also Providing a form of defense so the technology is less easily tampered with or stolen.

=== Placement ===
By default the mobile emitter is located on the upper arm of the photon's non-dominant side, or left side if they are ambidextrous. This is the location required as a part of the [[Starfleet Uniform Code]]. Other placement can be specified when programming a new appearance, but the emitter can not be relocated at will while the photon is using it like it can be with The Doctor's 29th century unit.

[[Category:Technology]]